This book explores the causes, character, and potential remedies for the problems caused by the growing spatial competition for capital in the United States, Europe, and other nations.

M ARKUSEN A. (2003) Fuzzy concepts, scanty evidence, policy distance: the case for rigour and policy relevance in critical regional studies , Reg. Studies 37 , 701-717. Regional analysis is increasingly populated by fuzzy concepts that lack clarity and are difficult to test or operationalize:...

In this paper I critique the notion of ‘the creative class’ and the fuzzy causal logic about its relationship to urban growth. I argue that in the creative class, occupations that exhibit distinctive spatial and political proclivities are bunched together, purely on the basis of educational...

M ARKUSEN A. (2003) On conceptualization, evidence and impact: a response to Hudson, Lagendijk and Peck, Reg. Studies 37 , 747-751. Contemporary human geographers must work to clarify and translate new critical theory insights for a broader audience. Better evidence will both strengthen the...

Many articles in this and other journals over the last decade have considered such topics as flexible specialization, resurgent regions, world cities, co-operative competition and social capital. In this edition of Debates and Surveys , Ann Markusen argues that much of this recent regional...

GRAY M., GOLOB E. and MARKUSEN A. (1996) Big firms, long arms, wide shoulders: the 'hub-and-spoke' industrial district in the Seattle region, Reg. Studies 30, 651-666. Rapidly growing regions exhibit distinct varieties of industrial district structure. One variant is the hub-and-spoke form,...

Silicon Valley has been admired and much emulated as an American version of a new industrial district based on its heavily networked, small-firm, innovative electronics sector. This industrial structure has been argued to give the region a uniquely cooperative, flexible, and dynamic structure....

The export potential of services has been assessed without regard to forward and backward linkages. Yet regional service sector growth is often associated with three factors: the displacement of manufacturing functions into service establishments, the marketing role of manufacturing-displacing...

This article reviews conceptual and operational issues in defining the creative sector and its arts and cultural core. Some accounts use establishment data to measure creative industry employment, some use firm-level data, and others use occupational data. The authors examine how cultural-sector...